Super Monkey Ball 2

More levels. More mini-games. More multiplayer. More fun. Our full review of Sega's monkey-filled bonanza.

Sometimes the greatest games are born of the oddest ideas. Sega's Super Monkey Ball, which debuted for GameCube last year, was certainly one of those. The title pitted players as ball-encapsulated monkeys whose only goal was to traverse giant, maze-like 3D levels without falling off the platforms to their demise. It was a twisted Marble Madness for the next-generation. Packed full of levels and equally topped with multiplayer-centric mini-games, SMB was addictive, fresh and purely entertaining. It was also a relatively simple, intuitive game, which made it a perfect selection for both children and adults, male and female players.

Now Sega and developer Amusement Vision have returned with a spirited sequel in Super Monkey Ball 2. The follow-up adheres to the play style and mechanics of the original offering, but adds an overwhelming supply of new single-player levels, expands upon the sizeable multiplayer mini-games already featured with several fantastic entries, and updates the graphic look so that environments are flashier and more animated. As a single-player game SMB2 is more difficult and satisfyingly challenging, but its multiplayer mode is untouchable by everything else currently available on Nintendo's next-generation console.

Features

Control ball-encapsulated monkeys through 3D-like mazes

New story mode

150 new stages

One to four players can compete, cooperate and collide in 12 addictive Party games

Explore 10 Monkey Worlds filled with unique themes and incredible visuals in the new Story Mode

GameplaySuper Monkey Ball 2, like its predecessor, enjoys a simple premise, which is to roll monkeys encased in glass balls through large, maze-like, and wholly interactive levels. The control functions have remained totally unchanged from the original game, which in our opinion is a good thing. The GameCube's analog stick steers the monkeys, and that's all there is to it. The trick is in making sure the characters don't fall off the platform ledges, or that each stage's countdown timer doesn't run out, before gamers can successfully make it through a goal located on each level. It's all very intuitive.

While the premise is certainly simple, the challenges themselves aren't always as quickly passed. The phrase "easier said than done" comes to mind when writing about some of the areas featured in the sequel, which boasts some 150 totally new levels and a noticeably more difficult learning curve. While the first batch of stages is easily beaten, particularly for players accustomed to the controls of the franchise, the hard areas surface quicker than they did in the original game. There are, of course, more looping, spinning, corkscrewing areas to navigate, and there are likewise levels that move up and down, left and right, and spin things around as gamers stare in awe. The overall level design is more inspired and more extravagant than in the first title. Loops are bigger and longer, and filled with other obstacles, corkscrews move, challenging players to stay on, and levels rotate while thrusting pillars upward through holes, making navigation entirely hopeless the first time through. Sega has also added new function pads -- play, rewind, fast-forward and stop -- that trigger and move parts of levels when rolled over resulting in an improved element of strategy in-game. The single-player levels alone, revamped and fantastic, are reason enough to consider picking up Super Monkey Ball 2.

That will be times when completing a stage seems a task near impossible, and sometimes this will prove frustrating. Indeed, some of the obstacles can be described as "cheesy" the first time through as gamers have no idea what to expect and are sure to fail. But there's something intangible there, too -- attribute it to clever design or the simple will of players to win -- that will almost certainly keep gamers trying again and coming back for more. And even bested stages present new challenges to crafty players looking for the best shortcuts and time bonuses. Meanwhile, SMB2's pacing is commendable, serving up new tasks in stage after stage, all of them classy and fun in their own way, if difficult at times.

The levels themselves are one thing, but what about the new additions? There are plenty to list. First, Sega has included a Story Mode in the single-player game. It's simple and at times ridiculous, weird and borderline disturbing, but it fits with the over-the-top style of the game. In it, a tyrannical monkey scientist named Dr. Bad Boon, desperately seeking friends, has kidnapped the bananas of the peaceful monkeys and so they go on a quest to retrieve them. The levels in the game are then explained as booby-trapped challenges that Bad Boon has setup for the monkeys. It's not deep or thrilling, but it is cute enough and the occasional in-engine cut-scene tells the story as players advance.

One of the pretty lava-themed single-player stages.

More importantly, though, are the multiplayer-centric mini-games, of which there are many. The six minis featured in the first game are back, including Monkey Race, Fight, Target, Billiards, Bowling and Golf, and all of them revamped and boasting new additions. Each mode has been deepened considerably with the inclusion of more levels, or more holes, or more lanes, or more arenas. For instance, Monkey Bowling now comes complete with regular lanes and fantastical ones that move, zigzag, or go concave. In truth, these new lanes could probably be released as a stand alone game; exploring the mode is that much fun, that rewarding. But the fact that Monkey Bowling is only a small part of the huge title is a true testament to how much replay value it radiates. Monkey Fight now includes a sudden death mode; Target has formation flying and split-screen play; Race has several new track themes. All of these are great fun. Players can imagine the multiplayer possibilities.